St. Augustine

When we found out that Cal and Maggie would be visiting, we gave them several options of the day trips that we could take while they were here.  They both were very interested in going to St. Augustine.  Maggie had been there once for lunch and Cal had never been.  Doug and I were excited to return and we left this morning around 9 a.m for the two hour trip.  

Our first stop in St. Augustine was the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument.  It was a Spanish fort built in the late 1600s to protect the Spanish colony that first settled St. Augustine.  Since it was part of the National Parks Service, we decided to purchase an America the Beautiful pass that would allow us to visit more of the Florida National Parks including the Everglades which we planned to visit this summer.  The four of us were very impressed with the fort.  We first listened to a talk about the fort, how it was made, how it was used and the history of it.  Afterward we did a self guided walking tour which was very interesting and at the end led us to the top of the fort.  It was a little scary to me being up that high, but the views were spectacular.  

After the Spanish fort, we walked down to St. George Street in search of a place to eat lunch.  We checked out multiple restaurants and found the perfect Italian place where we could sit outside while enjoying our meals.  Cal, Doug and Maggie ordered pizza while I tried their spaghetti.  All were delicious and we had a lot of fun talking about St. Augustine and our tour of the fort.  We also made plans for the rest of our visit.  We decided to next visit The Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine.  It was the first parish in the United States and was absolutely beautiful.  It was set to close at 3 for a wedding rehearsal and I felt very fortunate to have been able to see it.  Once we finished our tour of the Basilica, we spent the next hour walking up and down St. George Street exploring all of the shops.  There were several ice cream stores.  Cal and Maggie decided on Ben & Jerry's which they both really liked.  None of us bought anything else, but it was a lot of fun doing some window shopping.

Our next stop of the day was Grandpa Joe's Candy Store in downtown Ocala.  It has definitely become one of my favorite places to take visitors to when they first come to Ocala.  Cal tried an Idaho Spud candy bar which had a unique flavor.  We hung out at home afterward playing ping pong and corn hole.  Phil came over for a short visit before we went to the Shuckin' Shack for dinner.  All of us were exhausted, but incredibly thankful for a wonderful day.